This is the real reason you have blue eyes

Nope, it's nothing to do with being special...

Katy Perry. Margaret Thatcher. Aishwarya Rai. What do these three women all have in common?

One striking feature in particular: Blue eyes.

Despite what Van Morrison might say, we’ve always prized blue eyes as attractive. But now, science has revealed the reason behind why some of us have perfectly blue peepers – and it’s nothing to do with rare beauty.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has discovered that people with blue eyes are all descended from one common ancestor. Yes, that’s right – your blue eyes are all down to one single person.

The researchers found that a genetic mutation which occurred 6000 -10000 years ago is responsible for every single pair of blue eyes in the world today. According to Prof. Hans Eisberg who made the discovery: 'Blue eyes are more attractive to potential partners than brown. One mutation 10,000 years ago has today resulted in almost 200 million pairs of blue eyes, and people with blue eyes have more blue-eyed children.'

Speaking to Science Daily, Professor Eisberg explained that originally everyone on the planet had brown eyes until a genetic mutation essentially ‘turned off’ our ability to produce brown eyes. If this mutation had turned this ability off completely, we’d all be albinos…

But if you think blue eyes are synonymous with rare beauty, think again.

According to the ‘Blue Eyes Project’ – a study undertaken by ScotlandsDNA – blue is actually the most common eye colour in the UK, with researchers finding that 48% of British eyes are blue. Topping the polls are people in Scotland and Ireland, who are more likely to have blue eyes than anywhere else in Britain.

However, this may eventually change. Dr Jim Wilson, chief scientific officer at the Blue Eyes Project said: 'If rarity makes a feature more attractive then it could be that this process is reversed. If blue eyes pre-dominate in Europe then brown eyes might become more desirable.'

So it’s not all bad news for those of you representing the brown eye brigade either. All you need is a good mascara…